Moments in Time: A Tragedy
by Velorafe
Summary: The Sailor Senshi have only half an hour to find Chibiusa and Hotaru from the dimension distortion within the Tomoe residence. The dimensional distortion is a place where anything can happen. The Sailor Senshi will face that which we most fear. Dark retelling of episode 118: The Battle in a Demonic Dimension! The Sailor Senshi's Bet. Oneshot.


This is a fanfic. I make no claim to any copyrighted characters that appear in this story. They belong to their copyright holders.

This story is an alternative take on episode 118 (Season 3). In this episode Chibi-Usa visits Hotaru at her home but an accident causes the interior of the house to be transformed into a space-time anomaly separate from the surrounding space and Chibi-Usa and Hotaru are trapped within the space. In the anomaly anything can happen, beyond the corner may lie something completely unexpected and impossible in the real world. When you open your clothes draw you may find fishes happily swimming through water as they were in a water tank. A door in an apartment building heading into room 225 may open up into a well hidden grove inside a city park. The Sailor Senshi (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus) heroically go in to rescue their beloved friends. They have only half an hour before escape from the anomalous space-time becomes impossible.

I was quite impressed with that storyline, specifically with how open ended the story could become. I mean if anything could happen, what if it did? So I decided to produce this alternative version of that episode.

I warn you: This is going to be very sad.

And so it begins...

* * *

"We are caught in an alternative dimension," Sailor Mercury explained to her fellow Sailor Senshi. They were all walking within a valley, sheep peacefully grazed as though they had been there forever. "The space within this household has been distorted. Normal rules of time and space do not apply. If we walk around a corner we could find ourselves in a completely different and unexpected surrounding." She looked at her hand held computer and looked at the readings. "According to this Chibi-usa and Hotaru are beyond that door." She pointed at the door at the end of the trail. "Even though it appears to go into the earth anything at all could be behind that door. We should be prepared for anything."

"Well, whatever happens," Sailor Jupiter said, "We've only got twenty five minutes or so to find them."

* * *

They opened the door. Inside they saw a dark corridor, walled by little bricks of stone. They walked into it.

Mysteriously there were lighted torches at regular intervals within the corridor.

"I wonder who made and lighted all these torches?" Sailor Moon asked.

"Most likely the youma that caused this distortion is merely feeding off of the collective unconscious imaginations of the people around it," Sailor Mercury answered. "And thus these torches were incorporated within these series of buildings."

"We've got no time for this mumbo jumbo!" Sailor Mars shouted in irritation. "We've got to get to Chibi-usa and Hotaru."

The rest sullenly proceeded on their way.

As they advanced Sailor Jupiter noticed something to her left side along the wall. "Gee, look at that large vine. Wonder how that could ever survive down here."

The next moments occurred as in a flash. Before they were consciously aware of what was happening they saw the vines seemingly leap out of the wall and wrapped itself around Sailor Jupiter.

She felt a pressure from her back. It was increasing, intensifying, and then the world blossomed in crippling pain.

Sailor Jupiter front body exploded and the green vine rammed its way through her abdomen. Blood and guts spewed forth from her like a twisted parody of a geyser.

"Fire Soul!"

The monstrous vine was burnt to a crisp. But it was too late for Sailor Jupiter.

"Sailor Jupiter!" Usagi shouted.

"Usagi, Usagi. There's not much time left for me. I want you to know I love you all so much. It was the greatest honour to serve with you. I love you all. Don't worry about my body. Save Chibi-Usa and Hotaru. Keep yourselves safe."

She could feel her life going. Her body slumped down and the Sailor Senshi watched as Sailor Jupiter's life drifted away.

* * *

Chibi-Usa said to Hotaru, "I know the Sailor Senshi will come to save us."

They looked at the sand dune to their left and suddenly saw a metal door.

"Look, Chibi-Usa. A door."

"Let's go in."

They went in. Down the dark hall they went. Then down in the distance they saw Sailor Moon sitting over Sailor Jupiter. She went up.

"Chibi-Usa! Don't look."

"Sailor Jupiter!"

Sailor Jupiter's belly had been ripped open by the sickly green vine.

"You know," Ami said. "Even if we can get out of here we won't be able to take her back with us."

"You mean we will be robbed of even her body!" Sailor Venus shouted.

All this desperate struggle, which had claimed two Sailor Senshi's lives happened right next to Chibi-usa and Hotaru, and did not know till it was all over.

And then after Venus' words were spoken Sailor Jupiter's body collapsed and her entire body dissolved into dust. There nothing left but her dejected clothes.

"What's...what's happening!" Usagi shouted.

Sailor Mercury suggested an explanation. "Once she died her life force, all that had died, was simply absorbed by this space-time anomaly."

"Enough! We must go on and find the blasted youma." Sailor Mars then boldly went down the corridor with firm resolve. Seeing what was necessary the others walked on forward.

Onwards they proceeded into the corridor, past the rows of mysterious touches.

Sailor Venus, wishing to not let Sailor Mars bear any attack alone, proceeded up towards her and walked beside her.

About two minutes after they moved forward Sailor Venus went up ahead only a little way. It was then that her head slid off her body and fell onto the ground with a surprised thud.

Everyone screamed in horror. Sailor Mercury looked ahead with her visor. There was a small wire ahead, thinner than a hair's width. But it must have been so sharp it had sliced Sailor Venus' head clean off her body.

"Be very careful, guys."

Suddenly a wire leaped at her left hand and sliced it off. Blood sprayed like a hose from her. She screamed for an agonizing period. Finally she dropped down. Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars ran up to her as her life blood poured out.

Sailor Mercury lay on the ground. Sailor Moon ran up to her and cradled her in her arms.

"Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars..." Sailor Mercury gasped.

"It's ok. Save your strength," Sailor Mars pleaded to her.

"Listen," Sailor Mercury said. Then she spoke, "I don't have much time. I want you to know that I love you all. It was an honor to serve with you."

"Sailor Mercury!" Chibi-usa cried. "Please don't go!"

"I'm not going anywhere. If there is an afterlife know that I will everything I can to be with you and strengthen you to live in this life."

"Ohhhh!" Chibi-usa cried out, as the painful grief overcome her.

Sailor Mercury spoke again, "Sailor Moon, please tell my parents that I love them."

"It's ok." Sailor Moon assured her, "We will."

"Thank you," Sailor Mercury gasped out, and she relaxed and closed her eyes and soon the life slipped away from her.

Sailor Mars reverently knelt down, and closed her eyes.

She then stood up and said, "Let's go. There is nothing we can do here. We must get out of this blasted hell hole." And gradually the others got up and forlornly went on their way.

* * *

Meanwhile unknown to the brave Sailor Senshi below them, the dark cellars of the house remained intact. The equipment ruined by the explosion that created the anomaly silently. Oil and other flammables, parts of the wicked science of villainy, slowly seeped out of the equipment. The ever changing landscape kept the dangerous remains as undisturbed as the high mountains that stand forever. One moment they lay within an icy, snow filled Arctic wilderness, next they were in a rainy rainforest into which light barely penetrated. But it was only a matter of time before this peace would end. The area transformed into a rocky field within a blistering desert as intense as the Sahara. Only one spark would end this peace. A pebble lost its perch. It fell. Struck the rocky surface. It sparked.

* * *

They went through the accused stone corridor and finally they reached a door, and after Sailor Mars used her Fire Soul attack they walked up and found themselves in a wide, open green field.

It was then that the Sailor Senshi heard a tremendous explosion. The roaring did not disappear but only got louder and louder. Finally the sky broke. Impossibly the blue sky above fell down in giant slabs.

"Fire Soul!"

Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars threw their powers to stop their murderous descent. Suddenly the air to their right the air fell down they saw the wall of the building they were in.

"The anomaly is disintegrating!" Sailor Mars shouted. There was a window within the wall. The four ran into the window. Opened it and went through it. Outside was the world they had left behind.

Hotaru looked beyond and saw her father, Souichi Tamoe.

"Father!"

The roar of the explosion was only getting worse. In a moment of fearful revelation Souichi knew it would soon erupt even more. His daughter was too close and so he shouted, "Its going to explode! All of it! Get away!"

They all ran as fast as they could. They raced down the street and they were about three houses away when they heard the roar escalate into a most terrible explosion.

They all felt the shockwave. The two girls and Sailor Moon fell down at the shock. So did Souichi. But unlike Sailor Moon or Chibi-Usa or his daughter Hotaru, it was because he had fainted.

They heard a scream that somehow made itself heard despite the terrible explosion. Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars instinctively knew it was the hidden youma within the anomaly. It too was being destroyed within the explosion's fires.

Unknown to the Sailor Senshi the canister featuring Pharoah 90, a malevolent entity that possessed him, at that very moment was destroyed. The shock of not having his baneful influence supporting him caused him to pass out.

He fainted. He woke.

"Hotaru."

He looked up into his beloved daughter's face. He got up and looked at his ruined house in the distance. "What happened? Where have I been?" At that moment his memory of what had happened since he had been possessed was vary hazy and indistinct, only barely within memory.

"The house blew up."

"But you are fine. That is the important thing."

He turned his attention to the Sailor Senshi. "Tell me. Is everyone all right?"

Sailor Moon looked at him and wearily informed him, "Three women died within there magical space."

He did not know what they were talking about. He forgot that recent event. But he replied, shocked that people had died. "Oh no! That is terrible." He looked back at his home, at the raging fire that even now was consuming all his worldly possessions.

Later on he would only remember his wicked villainy only in an indistinct manner. He would never recall his role in the disaster.

* * *

Although the authorities were informed that three women had died within the fire no bodies were ever found within the house. Only lab equipment of an indeterminate nature.

* * *

Ten years later...

Chibi-Usa had returned into the future. Usagi, Rei and Mamoru met up at the rebuilt house. Hotaru met them at the door and introduced them to her father. He had dinner prepared. That night, ten years since the tragic incident they remembered their fallen friends, not just how they died, but who they were. To this day and forever they remained within their hearts and memories.

They had lead productive lives since that terrible day but this day they worked through the scars in their hearts that day had left them. Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus and Sailor Mercury were not forgotten. Their names lived on.

* * *

The End

* * *

**A/N**: I hope that wasn't too sad. If you want a happy ending I suggest rewatching the episode.

This is not a hatefic. Instead it is sort of a literary memorial to those who lose loved ones. I have long been following the events of the Arab Awakening with great interest. It is often concerned with the most tragic and bloody affairs. Thinking about people in those terrible situations sort of distilled itself into this story. This is why things happen the way they do in this story.

Also after seeing the episode I had this thought, What if one of the Sailor Senshi were fighting for their lives and just behind the wall, less than five meters away, Chibiusa and Hotaru wonder if their friends are looking for them? From that thought came this story. If anything can happen in this demonic dimension why not make it happen?

To me the great appeal of fanfiction is to imagine situations for characters that could never happen in canon. Hence this story.


End file.
